The countryside trip got scrapped. We couldn't find a driver who was a) available or b) willing to drive 14 hours over dirt roads in one day. Go figure. The best part was that we arranged for a driver, went to this guesthouse to meet him, waited 30 minutes for him to get there, checked out the car, and then were told we couldn't go. I've noticed a trend here in Mongolia of only wanting to conduct business face-to-face. Not over the phone (see my last post) and DEFINITELY nothing can get done online. This seems to be very time consuming, as deals fall through a lot.
Right now we're waiting for the DSL guy to show up. He was supposed to show up yesterday. He just called because he couldn't remember where we live (there aren't really any street addresses here. It's more like, "I live behind the building that used to be called the third Russian School."), even though we went through the details already. Then he said, "You live there? Oh. It might not be possible for you to get DSL."
The phrase "not possible" is very popular here. You just have to take deep breaths and deal with it, I guess.
On a brighter note, I successfully made banana bread in Jaspal's rickety oven (no temperature gauge -- just levels 1 through 4) with a bread pan made from tinfoil. It turned out good!
We had dinner the other night with Jaspal's friends Bayar and Mugi, who are very famous artists here. They came to California for an exhibit a few years ago, which is how we met them. Check out their website. Bayar paints mostly horses and Mugi paints mostly women. Their art (and their apartment) is amazing. We told them the story of the countryside spiders, and even they were disgusted. I don't feel like such a wuss now.
Yesterday we went to the Museum of National History, which had some lovely sunflowers out front. My favorite display was a hall of traditional costumes worn by all the different ethnic groups in Mongolia.
I think tonight we are going to check out Gandan, the largest monastery in Mongolia, just outside UB. It is supposed to be really incredible.
Stay tuned for the continuing saga of the DSL...
***DSL UPDATE***
The guy finally showed up and said...
"Not possible."
Now we're going to go to another provider who thinks it IS possible (or so they said last week).
2 comments:
Hope Jaspal eventually gets the DSL at his place.
Your friends' paintings are gorgeous. Looks like a great apartment too.
And I'm very impressed with your banana bread - last time I made some, in a real oven with a digital thermometer and in a real metal loaf pan, I left it in too long and it got overdone. So you've got me beat!
Loving the sunflower photo!
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